Monday, October 11, 2010

Well, that's one aspect of Batman and Commissioner Gordon's relationship:

Namely, outright dickery. From Batman #265, "Batman's Greatest Failure!" Written by Mike Fleisher, pencils by Rich Buckler, inks by Berni Wrightson.

This month, Bruce Wayne tries to turn Gotham City into Hollywood, or at least Toronto, by funding a movie. And when a stunt goes bad and the star actor gets his face blown off, he seeks vengeance...like everyone else injured in an accident in Gotham City. The actor actually kills a couple of people, or at least it looks like he did: Batman knew what he was going to try, and staged the murders so no one got hurt. Like three times, until he could catch the actor, who conveniently dies in a fire. Yeah, not a great issue, but there's at least this Batman/Commissioner Gordon scene, where Batman just seems like an ass. Always ducking out on Gordon would be rude enough, but here Bats steps it up.

Of course, Gordon also doesn't come off well in this one: as the "murders" go on, Gordon threatens to take Batman off the case. But Bats is a vigilante that doesn't work for him. Ah, my head hurts.

2 comments:

Justin Garrett Blum said...

It's funny to think there was ever a time when Commissioner Gordon was so naive he thought he could keep Batman out with a padlock. How quaint.

googum said...

I don't have the next issues, so I can only assume it continues to escalate, until Gordon's in a boarded-up room in the basement, nailing the door shut, when Batman comes up behind him.